With the start of the new year comes the start of a clean slate, and what better way to kick off another 365 days around the sun than with some healthy habits?
But, what used to be sweaty workouts at the gym and starting strict diets has evolved to include a wider spectrum of healthy habits — ones surrounded around self-care for both your physical and mental health. In Philadelphia, the options seem to grow more and more each year, and in 2022 there are plenty of ways to get your body and mind feeling right.
Here are just a few spots to check out.
Formation Sauna + Wellness
This Nordic style health center was the first of its kind to open in the city (and perhaps the East Coast) when it launched in 2021. Formation brings the style of sauna from the Pacific Northwest with Japanese and Korean influences and in the Midwest with Scandinavian influences to the City of Brotherly Love in a very relaxing and unique way. Formation’s sauna combines the heat with the cold, and it’s that contrast that’s key.
The temperature changes are really for your circulatory system, and it does something to create this bubble where your censors are shut down. Sauna/contrast bathing does give you that deep satisfaction and relaxation, and you eliminate all of that chaos. It puts you in a place where you are soothed and nourished on a sensory level, and, instead of exerting yourself to get to a healthy place, you do the opposite. It’s an infusion of wellness instead of an action of wellness. The treatment itself just requires a cooling shower, about 15 minutes in the sauna, sitting in a chair sipping tea or reading, and then it’s repeated through for two to three cycles.
Additional services offered at Formation include a therapeutic massage (which is said to be especially popular after the sauna) and meditative sound baths. Those who work at Formation. however, emphasize that this treatment should not be done once in a blue moon. To reap the true health and social benefits of a sauna, you must treat sauna sessions like yoga — practice multiple times per week or through weekly visits. Overall, the practice has a bevy of health benefits that reach past your circulatory system including reducing stress and anxiety, promoting muscle recovery, and immunity.
305 Brown St., formationsauna.com
The Wellness Collective
Taking control of your health is the name of the game at this holistic wellness service mecca, which was started by Danielle Massi, who was diagnosed with cervical cancer a week before her 30th birthday. Massi attributes her time leading up to that diagnosis as “unhealthy” because of her work schedule and stress — things that most people would identify with. About 79 million people, most in their late teens and early 20s, are currently infected with HPV, and an additional 14 million are estimated to be infected each year. However, the main causes of cervical cancer besides HPV are stress levels and poor diet. Through this realization, the Wellness Collective was born.
The Wellness Collective offers Philadelphians an array of healthy options… think of it as a menu to feed whatever it is that your body and mind needs. In a world where Massi says the message is to “work hard until you burn out,” the cancer survivor wants to combat that notion with one that puts the emphasis on nourishing your emotional, physical and mental wellbeing at all costs.
The Collective’s offerings range from therapy (there is a marriage and family therapist on staff as well as a professional counselor); a spiritual medium that helps people connect with those who passed on ( “a lot of people are grieving and they don’t recognize how they’re carrying that grief around with them,” says Massi); someone who directly works with the physical aspects of the body really clearing out energy and making people feel more aligned; three yoga instructors; and also Shadow Work (tapping into the unconscious mind), which is what Massi handles.
100 S. Broad St., wellnessphl.com
Reset by Therabody
What Reset offers is the option to recover like an athlete, even if you aren’t suiting up for a big game. With amenities normally only offered to the elite (although in the past few years they’ve been expanding their product offerings online), Reset by Therabody’s whole philosophy is that the power to heal ourselves is built into our biology, they just have the tools ready for us that will help speed along this process.
Reset offers monthly memberships which package some of their services together for an annual fee ranging from $150-$500, but they also offer other catered packages and a la carte services. These services in the past have only been available to athletes, high-level competitors and professionals, so the access is quite worth the trip. There are a few different services provided that are meant to help kickstart the body’s own armor for itself, in a way.
There’s a lymphatic massage, Theragun massage, PEMF therapy, cryotherapy, sound therapy, light therapy, Therabody retail, IV drips, enhancement boosters and more. Philadelphians can also buy specific packages that offer two or more services plus one of Reset’s products, like their Recover CBD Lotion or CBD Sleep Tincture. These packages, which range in categories such as “Calm,” “Replenish,” “Perform,” “Detox,” “Immunity,” and more, are priced around $50 and take about 30 minutes.
However, the a la carte services are even better. Visitors can schedule a Theragun massage (using the percussive device, the Theragun, that Therabody is most known for) for $20 for 15 minutes, or Cryotherapy for $45 for 5 minutes, plus PEMF (pulsed electromagnetic field therapy), Sound Therapy and more at around the same price range.
The procedures are scientific, and a little hard to understand from just the name. They won’t be after you do them, however. Each specialist who works at Reset has been trained, for hours, just on what each service does. Therabody pioneered percussive therapy, and now they are pioneering a professional education experience, which is reportedly unheard of in the performance and recovery space. They’re dubbed their school Therabody University, which combines the fundamentals of Theragun percussive therapy with actionable insights to “bring back to your business and drive greater value for your community.”
1424 Frankford Ave., therabodyreset.com
